Emery's Birth
It all started on Wednesday morning (Dec 31st) when I lost my mucus plug. I'd been watching for that plug for days and as soon as I lost it, I knew time was coming. I wasnt sure if it would be THAT day or in a few days, but either way...it was a good sign.
Around 8pm I started feeling some "uncomfortable" contractions. They didnt HURT per say, but they definitely packed a tiny bit of a punch. I didnt think a whole lot of it until they were still around at 9pm. So, we started timing them. About 10 minutes apart. At 10:00 they were coming every 6-7 minutes...and by 11 they were about 5 minutes apart. My doctor told me I needed to make "the call" once my contractions had been 5 minutes apart for an hour. BUT because I didnt want to rush into anything (and because they still weren't terribly painful), we gave it one more hour. At midnight we called our doctor and he told us that we needed to go to the hospital and get checked out. We called our awesome friend Ariana (who was aware of what had been happening and was "on call" to watch Annie) & she prepared to come over. In the meantime, we had our neighbor come over to stay with our sleeping Annie until Ariana could make it.
When we got to the hospital we went to "triage" where they examine you to make sure you're actually IN labor before they admit you. They hooked me up and checked me. I was dilated to 4cm. In order to show active labor, they needed my cervix to move while I was there, so they gave me a couple of hours before they checked me again. During that time my contractions were hitting every 3-4 minutes and by about 3am, they were HURTING. I now understand what they mean when they say you cant breathe or walk through contractions. They hurt so bad I really didn't know what to do with my body... laying hurt. sitting hurt. standing hurt. CLEARLY I was in for real labor and the on call doc/nurse knew that they would admit me, but they really needed to see a cervical change before they made the call to my doctor. SO they checked me around 4am and I was about a half a cm more dilated, which wasn't quite enough - so they waited another hour. At 5am I was close to 5cm, and my contractions were still coming on REALLY strong, so they made they call and admitted me. They were able to move me into my labor room by 6am (by which point I was in SERIOUS pain and I had nixed the entire idea of natural birth). My nurse was awesome and worked quickly to get me situated, get my IV in, labs drawn, water broken, and epidural in.
The resident doc came in and broke my water around 7:30 (at which point I was dilated to 5-6) and barely anything trickled out - which meant that emery's head was blocking the way (**this water definitely gushed out when she was born**). Soon after the anesthesiologist came in and worked his magic. He was insanely fast and probably could have gotten the wonder juice in me faster if I wouldnt have been contracting so much. Finally he was able to catch a break in my contractions to put it in. Both nurses said they had never seen anyone put in an epidural so fast. Within 20 minutes I was in high heaven. Labor...what labor? I've concluded that women who go through natural birth are either (1) wonder machines or (2) insane. I'm leaning more towards #2.
So the next 4 hours were smooth sailing. I had been awake for over 24 hours and I just wanted to sleep. And so I did. I never felt a single other contraction. It was amazing. At 9am I was contracting every 2 minutes (tho I was completely oblivious), dilated to 6 and 80% effaced. At 10:30 I was at 8cm. The nurses gave me a "magic button" that i could push anytime I felt like I needed more of the epidural medicine in my system. They assured my I couldnt overdose because they had a limit on it. I didnt push this button very much, but when they told me I was at an 8... I gave it a push to be sure I had enough in me to get through delivery!
The nurse and my doctor came in at 11:15 and I was complete. Fully dilated, fully effaced and they said, "time to push!" Uh. What?? My mom drove 8 hours through the night and arrived about 30 minutes before time. Steven helped hold my head, mom held a leg, and my awesome nurse held my other leg...and I pushed! For every contraction I pushed for 10 seconds...3 times. I did pretty well at the start, but by the end i was so out of air that I was concentrating more on not popping veins out of my head than I was pushing out my baby. So the nurse adjusted me and had me push for 5 seconds, take a breath, 5 seconds, take a breath (total of 4x). THAT worked and helped move my little baby down. Once they made that change it didnt take very long at all to get Emery out! She was born at 12:21pm on January 1st. She weighed 8lbs 9oz and was 20" long...and I never felt an ounce of pain :)
Emery Nicole Alexander was the first baby born in 2015 at Research hospital....so the staff made a HUGE deal out of her birth. They showered us with gifts, took photos, and even gave her a special hat and blanket. Our entire birth process and 2-day stay at the hospital was incredible and I cannot imagine it having gone any better. I am incredibly grateful to have had a vbac....
One week later I feel amazing - as if I have never even given birth. God is good...and our daughters are pure grace.
Around 8pm I started feeling some "uncomfortable" contractions. They didnt HURT per say, but they definitely packed a tiny bit of a punch. I didnt think a whole lot of it until they were still around at 9pm. So, we started timing them. About 10 minutes apart. At 10:00 they were coming every 6-7 minutes...and by 11 they were about 5 minutes apart. My doctor told me I needed to make "the call" once my contractions had been 5 minutes apart for an hour. BUT because I didnt want to rush into anything (and because they still weren't terribly painful), we gave it one more hour. At midnight we called our doctor and he told us that we needed to go to the hospital and get checked out. We called our awesome friend Ariana (who was aware of what had been happening and was "on call" to watch Annie) & she prepared to come over. In the meantime, we had our neighbor come over to stay with our sleeping Annie until Ariana could make it.
When we got to the hospital we went to "triage" where they examine you to make sure you're actually IN labor before they admit you. They hooked me up and checked me. I was dilated to 4cm. In order to show active labor, they needed my cervix to move while I was there, so they gave me a couple of hours before they checked me again. During that time my contractions were hitting every 3-4 minutes and by about 3am, they were HURTING. I now understand what they mean when they say you cant breathe or walk through contractions. They hurt so bad I really didn't know what to do with my body... laying hurt. sitting hurt. standing hurt. CLEARLY I was in for real labor and the on call doc/nurse knew that they would admit me, but they really needed to see a cervical change before they made the call to my doctor. SO they checked me around 4am and I was about a half a cm more dilated, which wasn't quite enough - so they waited another hour. At 5am I was close to 5cm, and my contractions were still coming on REALLY strong, so they made they call and admitted me. They were able to move me into my labor room by 6am (by which point I was in SERIOUS pain and I had nixed the entire idea of natural birth). My nurse was awesome and worked quickly to get me situated, get my IV in, labs drawn, water broken, and epidural in.
The resident doc came in and broke my water around 7:30 (at which point I was dilated to 5-6) and barely anything trickled out - which meant that emery's head was blocking the way (**this water definitely gushed out when she was born**). Soon after the anesthesiologist came in and worked his magic. He was insanely fast and probably could have gotten the wonder juice in me faster if I wouldnt have been contracting so much. Finally he was able to catch a break in my contractions to put it in. Both nurses said they had never seen anyone put in an epidural so fast. Within 20 minutes I was in high heaven. Labor...what labor? I've concluded that women who go through natural birth are either (1) wonder machines or (2) insane. I'm leaning more towards #2.
So the next 4 hours were smooth sailing. I had been awake for over 24 hours and I just wanted to sleep. And so I did. I never felt a single other contraction. It was amazing. At 9am I was contracting every 2 minutes (tho I was completely oblivious), dilated to 6 and 80% effaced. At 10:30 I was at 8cm. The nurses gave me a "magic button" that i could push anytime I felt like I needed more of the epidural medicine in my system. They assured my I couldnt overdose because they had a limit on it. I didnt push this button very much, but when they told me I was at an 8... I gave it a push to be sure I had enough in me to get through delivery!
The nurse and my doctor came in at 11:15 and I was complete. Fully dilated, fully effaced and they said, "time to push!" Uh. What?? My mom drove 8 hours through the night and arrived about 30 minutes before time. Steven helped hold my head, mom held a leg, and my awesome nurse held my other leg...and I pushed! For every contraction I pushed for 10 seconds...3 times. I did pretty well at the start, but by the end i was so out of air that I was concentrating more on not popping veins out of my head than I was pushing out my baby. So the nurse adjusted me and had me push for 5 seconds, take a breath, 5 seconds, take a breath (total of 4x). THAT worked and helped move my little baby down. Once they made that change it didnt take very long at all to get Emery out! She was born at 12:21pm on January 1st. She weighed 8lbs 9oz and was 20" long...and I never felt an ounce of pain :)
Emery Nicole Alexander was the first baby born in 2015 at Research hospital....so the staff made a HUGE deal out of her birth. They showered us with gifts, took photos, and even gave her a special hat and blanket. Our entire birth process and 2-day stay at the hospital was incredible and I cannot imagine it having gone any better. I am incredibly grateful to have had a vbac....
One week later I feel amazing - as if I have never even given birth. God is good...and our daughters are pure grace.
Comments
Post a Comment